Oil and Water

Douglas Jerolmack and Federico Falcini of the Department of Earth and Environmental Science discuss the catastrophic oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico.

June 29, 2010

Peter Nichols

Assistant Professor of Earth and Environmental Science Douglas
Jerolmack and postdoctoral researcher Federico Falcini have been studying
the flow of river water and sediment into large bodies of the Earth's waters.

Jerolmack combines field studies and lab experiments with mathematical
modeling to understand geological formations that emerge at the interface of
fluids and sediment. His studies range from how ripples in sand on the bottom of
a river change over minutes to the preserved record of millions of years of
coastal evolution on the continental shelf.

We're actively now pursuing research on the interaction of the river plume with the ocean so that we can better assess its potential as an effective broom for the oil slick. – Douglas Jerolmack

Falcini specializes in fluid dynamics, which he uses to construct models for
how geological structures form, change and disappear in places where soils and
moving waters interact. Their research holds important applications for dealing
with the massive oil leak at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico and prompted them
to study the movements of millions of gallons of raw crude pouring into the sea.

In this audio Q&A, Jerolmack and Falcini answer questions about the
spreading of spilled oil and how we might deal with the giant oil slick as it
moves toward coastlines.